Two Former Sheriff’s Deputies Indicted on Civil Rights and Obstruction Charges

WASHINGTON - Two former Tippah County, Miss., sheriff’s deputies, William Rogers, 57, and Jeffrey Rogers, 37, were indicted by a federal grand jury today in a three-count indictment, which included civil rights and obstruction of justice charges, announced Grace Chung Becker, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and Jim M. Greenlee, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Mississippi.

The indictment alleges that in June 2008, William Rogers, then a deputy sheriff for Tippah County, and his son and fellow deputy, Jeffrey Rogers, assaulted an arrestee, by tasering him repeatedly without justification, causing him injury, and depriving him of his civil rights. The indictment further alleges that after assaulting the arrestee, both of the defendants falsified official sheriff’s department reports concerning the assault in an effort to thwart a federal investigation into their wrong-doing.

If found guilty of the alleged crimes, both defendants face a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

The case will be prosecuted by Trial Attorney Kathleen J. Monaghan of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Coleman III.

The charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.